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Hackers Have Romney's Tax Returns

Mitt Romney’s tax returns are reportedly in the hands of a team of hackers who plan on releasing them publicly at the end of the month unless a ransom is paid.

The group allegedly obtained the files from PricewaterhouseCooper’s Tennessee office on Aug. 25, in what was described on PasteBin as a Mission Impossible-like caper:

Romney’s 1040 tax returns were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of the building. Once on the 3rd floor, the team moved down the stairs to the 2nd floor and setup shop in an empty office room. During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied. A package was sent to the PWC on suite 260 with a flash drive containing a copy of the 1040 files, plus copies were sent to the Democratic office in the county and copies were sent to the GOP office in the county at the beginning of the week also containing flash drives with copies of Romney’s tax returns before 2010. A scanned signature image for Mitt Romney from the 1040 forms were scanned and included with the packages, taken from earlier 1040 tax forms gathered and stored on the flash drives.

The files are to be released to the public on Sept. 28, according to the PasteBin document.

The release, however, could allegedly be avoided if Romney’s camp were to wire transfer $1 million in Bitcoins — an online currency that is difficult both to trace and to identify.

“The keys to unlock the data will be purged and whatever is inside the documents will remain a secret forever,” states another PasteBin document. “Failure to do this before September 28, the entire world will be allowed to view the documents with a publicly released key to unlock everything. And the same time, the other interested parties will be allowed to compete with you.”

A call to to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Tennessee office was not immediately returned.

Romney’s tax returns have been a lightning rod for criticism from President Barack Obama and Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who claimed that the presidential hopeful hasn’t paid taxes for more than a decade.

“Never in modern American history has a presidential candidate tried so hard to hide himself from the people he hopes to serve,” Reid said in a speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday.

So far, Romney has released a tax return for 2010 and plans on doing so for his 2011 filing. He has refused to release any returns from before 2010.

“I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more,” Romney said in a debate in January, according to the New York Times. “I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.”

It's sort of a lose/lose for Romney, isn't it? If the returns are released, it's likely Democrats will find something objectionable to attack; similarly, if Romney pays the 'ransom,' it will look like he was hiding something awful.

not sure it could be worse than not doing what he is now. i suppose paying a ransom could be worse. But unless he deducted child porn as a business expense, anything he actually did is better than what people suspect. That's the really stupid part of not releasing his tax returns in the first place. Everyone sits around and tries to guess how Romney cheated on his taxes. The actual truth has to be better than the speculation.

not sure it could be worse than not doing what he is now. i suppose paying a ransom could be worse. But unless he deducted child porn as a business expense, anything he actually did is better than what people suspect. That's the really stupid part of not releasing his tax returns in the first place. Everyone sits around and tries to guess how Romney cheated on his taxes. The actual truth has to be better than the speculation.

I have a few theories on Romney's decision not to release his taxes.

Romney claimed to have paid 13% in taxes. Fair enough. While people might think Romney "cheated" on his taxes, if they were to see how he did it - exclusions, loop-holes, exceptions, tax-credits - they might react negatively. It might alienate independents and undecided voters, as well.

Isn't it also possible that Romney profited massively in 2008, while the economy was falling? He's a very smart man and a savvy investor; I think it's quite possible he had huge gains shorting the market while the sky was falling. Not sure that would be politically popular...

And, by the same token, it's quite possible he lost his shirt in '08. I actually think this is the worst of the three possible scenarios. If Romney is as dumb and susceptible to making mistakes as the rest of us, it tarnishes his reputation as a brilliant businessman, doesn't it? Real leaders break free of the lemming pack, as opposed to jumping off the cliff with them.

Just come out and release the freaking records..... Because you are gonna look bad out of this either way. If he pays the ransom then everybody is gonna think the worst possible about his records. If he doesn't and the hackers reveal the records then people are still gonna say that he was hiding stuff.

A lose/lose situation for Romney. The only move that he has is to actually release it on his own and try to defend his reputation that he has nothing to hide. I wonder how many files was in the flash drives that was sent to DNC? I mean, i'm pretty sure some individuals there already know the filings.